Dec. 6, 2012

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Following are the highlights from coach Mike McCarthy's brief press conference after practice today:

Defensive back Charles Woodson practiced in pads today for the first time since sustaining a broken collarbone in October, but he didn’t do much hitting and appears to be at least a week away from returning .

McCarthy said he also would have liked to get outside linebacker Clay (hamstring) a little work in pads today, but Matthews’ recovery wasn’t far along enough to do that. The Packers won’t practice in pads at all next week because they play Sunday night instead of in the afternoon, so if Matthews comes back next week he won’t get any padded work.

“Limited,” McCarthy said of Woodson’s padded work. “Just took some reps, just getting back into it. It was important, we’re obviously on a rep count for the number of padded practices per season, so it was important to get out there today in pads. Something we also talked to Clay (Matthews) about, but it just didn’t work out as far as the rehab program he’s on. But (Woodson) was very limited.”

**The NFL’s CBA allows for only 14 padded practices for a regular season, and 11 of those have to come in the first 11 weeks, and only one of those weeks can have two padded practices. Then there’s a maximum of only three padded practices over the final six weeks, with no more than one a week.

After going in pads today, McCarthy has one padded practice remaining for the final three weeks of the regular season. In the playoffs, teams can have one padded practice a week.

**McCarthy had no update on the severity of defensive lineman Mike Neal’s shoulder injury – Neal has a history of shoulder problems and had sustained a torn labrum in each shoulder earlier in his football career. His injury plus a knee injury to C.J. Wilson could leave the Packers with only four healthy defensive linemen for Sunday’s game against Detroit, but McCarthy said the Packers also might consider making a personnel move at the end of the week, presumably promoting defensive lineman Jordan Miller (6-1, 309) from the practice squad.